The Predator - Movie Review

Starring Boyd Holbrook, Trevante Rhodes, Jacob Tremblay, Sterling K. Brown, Keegan Michael-Key, Olivia Munn, Thomas Jane, Alfie Allen, Jake Busey, Yvonne Strahovski and Augusto Aguilera.
Written by Shane Black & Fred Dekker.
Directed by Shane Black.

★★½

None of the Predator movies have been high art, but the original 1987 classic with Arnold has enjoyed good will over the decades. Predator 2 was okay, but people rarely talk about it. The Alien v. Predator movies are wisely ignored by the Alien and Predator franchises, and Predators (starring Adrien Brody) wasn't bad, even though it did feel like the script was the winner of a fan-fic contest.

The Predator is about on par with Predators. I was entertained. It's fine. It has some unique kills; it has some Shane Black dialogue. Some members of the cast are better than others. When you have Jake Busey show up as a scientist, you know how unseriously it's taking itself. The ending is bad, in the way most "keep things open for sequels!" endings are.

But for me, the weak parts were the giant leaps in expositional logic. Humans keep figuring out what the plot is without enough evidence to support their theories. "This must be his motivation!" Wait, based on what exactly?

Boyd Holbrook (Logan, Narcos) is good as the lead. He's a soldier who winds up getting lumped in with some other crazy ex-soldiers called the Loonies. I appreciated how none of them started dying until late in the movie so we could get to know them, and each of them are interesting. (Moonlight's Travente Rhodes shows he was no fluke. Keegan-Michael Key can credibly fire a gun. Augusto Aguilera's going to start getting offered "younger Michael Pena" roles. Etc.)

Predator #1, Simple Favor #3 at box office

For the weekend of September 14-16, 2018, The Predator was #1, but it came in much lower than it was tracking. It had to have been hurt by bad reviews, plus no real star to hook audiences with.

Of the other new releases, A Simple Favor did well, considering. Marketing had the unenviable task of publicizing a movie that combines comedic elements with a mystery thriller, and it also needs to not give any of the significant twists away. White Boy Rick, meanwhile, continues to show that Matthew McConaughey's star power is pretty diminished.

The Nun had a big drop-off but that was to be expected. It'll easily hit $100 million next week and still has potential to be the highest grosser in the Conjuring universe.

September 21
THE HOUSE WITH A CLOCK IN ITS WALLS with Jack Black and Cate Blanchett.
LIFE ITSELF with Oscar Isaac, Olivia Wilde, Annette Bening and Antonio Banderas.
FAHRENHEIT 11/9 with Michael Moore.

The Meg - Movie Review

Starring Jason Statham, Li Bingbing, Rainn Wilson, Cliff Curtis, Ruby Rose, Winston Chao, Page Kennedy, Jamie McNamee, Robert Taylor, Olafur Darri Olafsson, Sophia Cai and Masi Oka.
Written by Dean Georgaris, Jon Hoeber & Erich Hoeber.
Directed by Jon Turteltaub.

★★½

This is a movie about a giant prehistoric shark. When the movie focuses on the giant prehistoric shark, the dumb popcorn fun happens. When it tries to focus on "character development," it falls flat. And at a two-hour running time, there's too airtime that does not contain the giant prehistoric shark.

It's based on a series of books, so I would assume that means there's somewhat intelligent source material to draw from. Director Jon Turteltaub (National Treasure) takes a hammy script and makes it worse by dwelling too long on reactions after alleged laugh lines, choppy pacing, and very lopsided acting. Some of the acting is so bad, I was begging for this character or that to get killed off as soon as possible so I wouldn't have to hear their painful line-reads anymore.

But this movie's budget didn't hit $130 million because of some all-star cast. It's about the effects, and the Megalodon is a really cool creation. It's ominous in the dark waters, its giant mouth can bite through a whale, and there's some genuine excitement/suspense when it approaches.

Overall, I don't mind having seen it on $5 Tuesday. I would see a sequel, because I assume they'd try to learn from what doesn't work here. Is it the next Jaws? Nope. Is it the next Jaws 2? Close.